Who are you to Judge
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: this is one of those re written chapters that I wrote and re wrote more than ten times. It's a bucky/oc fic. takes place four years after civil war.
1. Chapter 1

Four years.

It had been four long years since the rogue Avengers had last laid eyes on familiar surroundings. Their old home, the tower, had been stripped and sold by Tony after Civil War had taken place between them. Their new home, in Steve's opinion looked much nicer.

Cozier even.

It looked..._nice_ for a three story building laid out over almost twenty miles of land, while the rest of it was a training facility. Looking out of the window of the Quinjet, he could see miles upon miles of nothing but training areas, carefully put together for the purpose of sparring, enhancing speed, close quarter's combat, long distance combat and many other things.

"It looks nice." Bucky's voice mumbled from somewhere over his shoulder, causing him to turn his head and look at his childhood friend as he peeked over the back of his seat.

Steve would have thought that after the events that had happened in Siberia, that Tony would never forgive Bucky for his role in the deaths of his parents.

However Tony had spent the past four years re writing the accords, pushing them through the accords committee, who then passed them through congress, got them signed by the president and hereby gotten them _all_\- former fugitives from the law, pardoned of their crimes so that they could come home.

"We'll be landing in a few minutes." Bucky said as he studied the scenery from over Steve's shoulder. Uncertain about what would happen once they landed.

Steve made a humming sound but didn't really say anything in regards to how things _might_ go once they were off the jet and face to face with Tony again after so long. After all things could only go so many ways.

Either Tony had forgiven them. Or he hadn't.

All he knew was that Tony hadn't donned his armor and come up to shoot down the jet with them inside it- so...he was kind of hopeful that things would go well?

* * *

It was raining like piss pouring out of a boot. And she was dripping wet, _again_. Tony thought to himself as he looked his girl over from head to toe.

All of the work that she had put into choosing some nice, but comfortable clothing for today's occasion- what little bit of makeup that she had bothered to wear. Hell even the nice up off of her nape hair style that she'd had- were all _ruined_. And to make matters all that much worse for her- he, Bruce, Vision and Thor were being pains in her proverbial backside.

Almost literally.

"You shouldn't be out here in this whether-" Tony started after taking several moments to flat out glare at her with barely suppressed fury at her for not having the _common sense_ to either get out of the fucking rain or at least _bring_ a damned umbrella.

She sighed knowing that he was only angry with her because he was worried about her. And apparently didn't like her 'neglecting' her own health when he and the others were simply trying to take care of her.

She understood very well where he was coming from. Truly she did.

After all, she and Tony were blood kin.

Though he had chosen to never tell anyone of her so that she would remain safe from harm. The whole staying safe thing had sort of blown up in everyone's faces three months prior when she had been 'ransomed'- actually that was too nice a word for what had really happened.

In actuallity she had been kidnapped by her own step father and older brother, pimped out, raped multiple times by unknown assailants, gotten pregnant, and then sold back to Tony whom had received a video of her being assaulted and then threated to be hacked into little pieces by her bastard of a brother.

To say that Tony had been_ pissed_ at what had happened would of course be the understatement of the century. Especially after he had taken such painstaking care to ensure that such things wouldn't happen to her at all.

Her step father and brother had put themselves directly on his shit list.

And when someone was on Tony's shit list, they fucking stayed there until they drew their last dying breath. Although in Tony's case, this particular shit list involved capturing the two along with some of the men who had assaulted her- and torturing them all to ensure that they begged for mercy before handing them over to the proper authorities.

"Could we please not argue again?" She asked in a pleading tone that had Tony's furious expression softening considerably.

"Only if you develop some common sense and get out of the rain," Tony said as he held his umbrella out to her before then tacking on. "You really shouldn't be out in this whether sweetheart. It's bad for you. And it's bad for the baby. Thor, would you mind letting our very own lovely little drowned rat borrow your cape to keep warm until the meet and greet is over and she can go back inside and change into something dry?"

Thor grinned and slipped his cape off of his shoulders and carefully draped it over her head to help protect her from the rain and keep her warm. "There we go, is that better?" He asked curiously.

"I- yes, thank you Thor. Thank you."

"I live to serve lady Cassie." Thor said with a cordial bow in her direction.

"I'm aware big guy." She said as she reached out and gently pat him on the bicep. Thor chuckled and merely resumed his impassive stance to await the other's arrival as Tony moved in closer to her and whispered,

"I know that I invited the others back and all, but I want you to stay close to me so that I can protect you."

"I doubt that the others are going to say much less do anything to me Tony."

"Maybe they will and maybe they won't. Clint and Nat aren't exactly the most trusting people in the world. And neither is Steve. I'm also worried about what will happen with Barnes running around since he'll be living here too."

"Your worried that they might start some shit with Cassie?" Bruce asked Tony curiously in a low tone so that Cassie wouldn't hear him.

"It's been four years since they've been home and a lot has changed. Honestly, I'd be shocked if a few of them _didn't_ try starting something." Tony replied quietly as Thor distracted Cassie by engaging her in a thumb war.

"Which one's do you think will be the most trouble?" Bruce asked.

"Honestly? Nat, Clint, and Cap aren't my greatest fans at the moment. So it wouldn't shock me in the least if any of them went after Cass in an effort to cause discord."

"What do you think they might pull?" Bruce asked so that he could warn Thor and Loki and the others that had become attached to Cassie in the short time that she had been at the compound.

"They might demand that I throw her out on her cute little ass. But then, it's my home and they have no right to demand anything of me here. Actually, I may have to set up a place in the compound that is just for her as a precaution- that way she has somewhere to go when things get stressful."

"Sort of like a panic room?"

"Something to that effect, yeah." Tony said as a sudden gust of wind caught them off guard. Automatically turning his head, it was on the tip of his tongue to call one of his suits to come to their location when he caught sight of Thor partially turned away from the landing Quinjet with Cassie wrapped in his arms- trying to protect her from the abrupt onslaught as the jet finally landed and the wind slowly but surely died down.

Giving Tony enough time to look over Cassie before then ordering her to stay close to either Thor or Bruce as the former rogue Avengers walked down the jet's ramp and into view.

"Tony-" Steve called out in his usual friendly manner. Making Tony gnash his teeth at the way Steve acted like today was just any other day and Siberia had_ never_ even fucking happened at all.

So instead of greeting the foolishly naïve man back, Tony instead turned to his bestie Barnes and called out, "How's it going Frosty? Did you get all fixed up by T'challa and his docs?"

Barnes balked for a moment as if he wasn't sure how to respond to his question while Steve frowned at being ignored. Finally Barnes said slowly, "Yeah. The docs fixed me up real good. Are you gonna try and kill me again now that I'm...myself?"

Tony laughed at the absurdity of the question and waved his hand at him before saying, "God no. I've had more than enough time to process what happened and no longer blame you for anything. Hell, I shouldn't have blamed you to begin with. You didn't deserve that on top of the rest of the shit storm that you found yourself in, and I understand that. So I owe you an apology Barnes. And not a half assed one either, my girl would box my ears if I gave you less than you deserved. So when you're ready to hear it- bring Cap with you and we'll talk."

"Y-Yeah, okay." Bucky stammered out awkwardly before Tony then shifted his attention to the others, noting automatically that Nat, Clint, and Steve had already zeroed in on Cassie and were each glaring at her as she peeked around Thor's back at them like a shy, small child.

"And as for the rest of you- welcome home. I hope that it is everything that you expected and more. There's been some changes in personnel. We have one civilian living here who is kin to one of the Avenger's. She is off limits in every capacity that you can imagine. Scott, Clint, and Sam, there are log cabin style houses just to the left of the compound over towards the woods. Each comes with several miles of fenced in land and you're families are currently residing there," Tony said absently before then saying to Steve, Nat and Bucky. "You three, follow Brucie Bear, and he will take you to you're rooms while I take sassy Cassie here and get her to change her clothes out of those sopping wet rags before she starts sneezing." As he reached out and took Cassie's small hand in one of his and pulled her away from Thor's side and began maneuvering her towards the nearest door.

Completely ignoring the weird looks he and Cassie were getting from everyone as he gently pushed her, protesting the whole way, he might add. "Hey! Tony! Stop pushing me! I haven't even- _Hey!_ I can walk on my own."

"That remains to be seen, Cassie my darling. My love. Light of my life." Tony said in an overly chipper tone as he continued to gently push her.

"Stop laying it on so thick- we both know that you'd be dead without me!"

Tony merely hummed and pushed her through the door where no one could see them anymore before quickly scooping her up in his arms and dashing off towards the closest elevator.


	2. Chapter 2

"So that's Tony's flavor of the week..." Natasha said curiously as she watched the man gently push the dark haired young woman far, _far_ away from them and their little group when Thor turned to them and growled,

"Lady Cassie is more than friend Stark's flavor of the week. So I would watch myself and how I speak of her if I were you."

"Now, now," Bruce said as he held up his hands as if to ward the god of thunder off as he tacked on. "We promised Tony, that there would be no fighting. Besides if they want to start something in regards to Cassie, then I say let Tony have them. I'm pretty sure that he can kick each of their asses this time."

"Bruce!" Steve admonished causing the usually very jumpy man to turn his head and outright glare at the blond before snapping back,

"_Watch. You're. Fucking. Tone. Rogers_. I've been dying, for the past four years, to lay into you three _idiots_ for your Civil War stunt. So _don't_ push me. My promise to Tony only restrains me so much." He shifted his attention away from them for a second to say, "You should go on ahead big guy, I'll finish up the tour for the first timer and the others. You're late for a meeting with Loki."

Thor glanced down at the watch on his wrist and swore softly before patting Bruce on the back and saying, "Aye, you are right. I must go now. Loki will be most cross with me for wasting so much time."

"Just tell him that Cass wanted you to say 'hi' to him and he'll leave you alone."

Thor laughed softly at that and shook his head, "I never thought that I would live to see the day when my brother became besotted with a human female. If mother were still around, she would find this most humorous indeed."

"Just remember to tell him that Cassie say's 'hi' and that she fully expects for him to be present for dinner and a movie in two days time. I guarantee that he'll practically be tripping all over his cape just to get here to keep from disappointing her like last time." Bruce chuckled as he waved Thor off.

The man grinned at him and vanished in a blinding flash of blue lightening as Bruce turned back to the others- some of whom had their mouths hanging open in slack jawed disbelief as Clint sputtered before finally shouting.

"L-L-Loki? As in Thor's psychotic asshole of a brother, Loki?! What the ever loving hell are the lot of you doing hanging out with him? Why are each of you hanging out with that bitch that's associated with him?"

"First off Clint, it's been more than four years since any of you were last here and a lot has changed. Second of all- I won't warn you again about speaking ill of Cassie." Bruce said in a deceptively calm tone as he shot them all a look.

"He shouldn't be here! Why isn't he rotting in a prison somewhere?"

"Because Asgard is gone!" Bruce suddenly shouted at the lot of them. "Thor and Loki and what's left of their hundreds of people no longer have a fucking home. Thor is now king, and he has no goddamned home to rule over! Loki has changed- he helped to defend the last of Asgard's people, myself and Thor while the planet was burning to ash under our feet!"

"Tony was kind enough to find an unclaimed lot of land for them to rebuild their homes. Cassie helps to keep both Thor and Loki from running themselves into the ground when they're too exhausted to look after themselves because their people _need_ so damn much! They both adore her. Hell Tony and I do too. So I'll say it again and this time you're going to fucking listen. Keep your stupid comments about Cass to yourselves. Now if you're done being assholes, kindly follow me. I don't have all damn day to waste on you when I'm already late for an appointment." Bruce said in an aggravated tone as he started walking, not caring in the least if anyone bothered to follow him or not.

* * *

After finally finishing up the tour and showing everyone where their new rooms were, Bruce practically did an impression of the Roadrunner and vanished. Leaving the others alone to explore their new home while he made his way down to the infirmary where he knew Tony would have Cassie practically hogtied and waiting for him to show up to check her and the baby out.

Walking into the room to find Cassie being held down, carefully by both Loki and Thor- he blinked at the two men before his dark eyes settled on Tony who was doubled over wheezing a few feet away.

"Uh...guys-"

"Tony called for re enforcements upon being hit in his..._unmentionables_." Thor offered helpfully.

"Hit nothing! I think she tried to rip my nuts off!"

"With the way you guys are ganging up on her- I doubt that I could really blame her any if she did remove them." Bruce said as he fished a cold pack from the small fridge that he kept in his office and handed it to Tony so that he could ice himself before then moving to pull on some gloves.

"Really feeling the love Brucie Bear." Tony wheezed as he placed the ice pack on his junk and watched as Bruce had Loki distract Cassie with something- that looked strangely like a DVD box set to an anime series- as the man made weird little cooing noises while both Thor and Bruce exchanged an amused look while Bruce slowly got to work on _their_ girl.

Drawing blood, checking her blood pressure, her heart rate, her lungs ect...

And finally once Bruce was done, Cassie was allowed to sit up and all of them watched in bemusement as she grabbed the anime box set from Loki's hand, slipped an arm around the taller man's neck and with a boldly declared, "Nobody move- or Loki get's it!" Promptly dragged the god from the room as she left.

* * *

"Do you think that Loki has them all under a spell or something?" Natasha asked as she, Bucky, and Clint walked down the hall with Steve. The blond was_ pissed_.

Understandably so given the sort of homecoming that he had been hoping for versus the one that he and the other's had actually had.

A stranger was in his home and Loki was with her.

He already disliked strongly Loki due to the events that had led up to the battle of New York several years prior. He didn't know enough about the woman to form an opinion one way or the other. After all, there was always the chance that Loki was using her to get close to the others and she was unaware of it.

But there was also an equal chance that she was in on everything.

He opened his mouth to finally articulate his thoughts on the matter of Loki and the woman when he saw said female from before walk by them- dragging- the god of mischief by his neck while the two argued about something among themselves.

He only heard a little bit of the argument, but that didn't matter much given how lost he already was.

"I'm telling you- we should do something for Halloween!"

"Like what?" Loki asked, obviously unconcerned about being dragged around by the short, dark haired young woman by his neck.

"Apples! We'll get some apples, sit on the roof and when kids ten and above come to trick or treat- we'll throw apples at them!"

"Isn't that against Midgardian law?"

The woman made a scoffing sound before saying, "Only if you get caught."

"You'll be a wonderful mother Lady Cassie." Loki said dryly as the woman merely turned her head and said,

"My kid isn't going to be a wuss, that's for damned sure."

To which Loki merely muttered a soft, "God help them." As they disappeared around the corner, having never seen much less bothered to look at the others who were all standing there with varying expressions of disbelief and shock whereas Bucky's expression was merely one of amusement.


	3. Chapter 3

**I swear that this was meant to be more serious- but I'm tired and this chapter de evolved into this. So please don't hold it against me.**

* * *

The next time anyone heard or saw Tony- it was three or four days later around breakfast time. He came staggering into the common room while the rest of them were hanging out waiting for Steve to finish cooking their food and automatically went for the fridge.

Everyone froze up as the man tiredly grabbed a jar of pickles, hot sauce, some mayo and mustard, peanuts, caramel candy, sour cream, carrots and then snagged some green tea ice cream from the freezer before also snagging a plastic container of spaghetti, and then carefully popped the lid off, and grabbed a spoon and started to add some of the mayo, mustard, sour cream, hot sauce and ice cream to it before placing some caramel on top and then potting it in the microwave to heat it up.

"Tony?"

"Hn?"

"W-What are you doing?" Steve asked curiously as Tony began to impatiently tap his fingers on the counter while the food heated.

"I'mma collecting food to sooth the savage beast." The man said sleepily when Bruce peeked into the room real quick and scanned it before he noticed him and called out to him,

"Tony! She said to get some eggs and bacon, and a couple of banana peels too!"

Tony only partially turned to glare at the other man while muttering, "How does she fucking do that? She's half a building away and it's like-"

"I dunno how she does it either, it's like she's part blood hound or something," Bruce said as he popped his head back into the room again to put in his two cents. "Either way she wants her stuff. And I want her to have her stuff because the last time she got hungry and went to my lab we had a code _green_."

"Please tell me that she isn't in your lab Brucie." Tony said with an alarmed expression as he finally turned all the way to look at the man in abject horror.

"She's playing with fire Tony. _Fire_. As in, ouch- hot, and it burns." Bruce deadpanned despite the panic that was bleeding through his tone more and more by the second.

"_Fuck me_," Tony spat as the microwave finally dinged indicating that the food was done heating. Quickly grabbing it, Tony then turned to Steve who like the others had been watching and listening to the whole display/conversation with avid interest and said, "Steve- I hate to do this to all of you, especially Clint given how pitiful he can be on an empty stomach, but I need to commandeer those eggs and bacon pieces like _asap_!"

Steve just blinked at him, not knowing what to make of this situation when Thor popped his head in and said in a dread filled tone. "Bruce's lab is on fire and Lady Cassie has decided that she wants fresh blood. Do we have any goats that we can sub out or s-should we contact the local authorities again and tell them to hide all of the children in the local area?"

"Oh dear god." Bruce groaned as he thumped his head on the wall while Tony openly gaped at the two as if they were insane.

"Quick Thor! Call Loki! Tell him that we have a code C and to get over here quick, fast and-" There was a poof of smoke and Loki appeared out of thin air.

"You rang?"

"We have a code C, Loki. Do you think that you-"

"Wait, wait, wait, why did he just poof out of thin air like an evil witch or something? He's not carrying poison apples on him, is he?" Tony wondered aloud as he looked at Loki oddly.

Loki merely rolled his eyes at the lot of them and sighed before grabbing the food that Tony had been preparing and then quickly finished adding the eggs, bacon, peanuts, carrots and pickles to the warm goopy mix before then grabbing three banana's and then turned and walked away muttering, "I've never seen men absolutely fall apart like you three do when it come's to the hormones of _one_ pregnant woman."

"Hey! You try not feeding that little savage every hour or so," Tony cried while visibly bristling at the god's tone. "I don't know if you're aware of this yet Loki but a scientifically _enhanced_ pregnant woman with actual flipping _hormones_ are just fucking insane! Hydra screwed the damn pooch here! _Literally!" _

"Tony's right, she's terrifying." Bruce said as he looked at Thor. The taller man gave the brunette a slightly strained smile and laughed nervously before saying,

"I'm aware of how terrifying she can be. To be honest I often want nothing more than to curl up under one of the sturdier tables or desks in the compound and hide."

Tony slammed his hands down on the kitchen counter and then pointed at Thor and said, "My god that's a brilliant idea. Who else wants to find a nice table/desk and hide? Brucie? I'm down if you guy's are otherwise I'll just feel weird."

Both Bruce and Thor chimed in that they were down with that particular plan as Tony practically crawled over the counter and made a beeline for the door as he barked out, "Friday, gimme an idea about which rooms in the compound hold the sturdiest tables and desks! Daddy's got some hiding to do."

_"Right boss. Scanning now." _

Tony disappeared shortly after passing through the door, with Bruce not too far behind him. Whereas Thor hung around long enough to grab his precious pop-tarts from the top of the fridge, an apple juice and gave them a tight lipped smile as he politely bid them all a good morning before he too vanished.

Leaving them all staring in silence at the door before Clint finally asked in an annoyed tone, _"What the fuck was that?" _

"I don't think anyone really knows what that _nonsense_ was." Steve said with a slight shake of his head as he mentally started going over everything that had been said by Tony, Bruce and Thor.

"They sounded like they all lost their minds." Nat said after a heartbeat or so of silence.

"I doubt that's what's really going on," Bucky finally spoke up. "Tony mentioned an enhanced woman, pregnancy, hormones, and Hydra. So...maybe they have a victim of Hydra living here who is also enhanced and pregnant?"

"Oh my god..." Steve muttered as he scrubbed his face with his hands. If Bucky was even the slightest bit right about his assumptions then Hydra would be coming for whoever Tony and the others were harboring. And like they all knew from experience, the organization would _kill_ to get her back.

"We need to find out who that woman is and see to it that she and her baby are protected."


	4. Chapter 4

The next time anyone saw the enigmatic billionaire, was when Bucky was walking around aimlessly.

Unlike Steve, who tended to like hanging around the indoor gym just punching things all damned day. And the former assassins/spy's who were roaming around doing...former assassin/spy stuff.

He didn't know nor care to think too much on what Shield had taught them since he was pretty sure that he'd get nothing but a headache out of it.

Instead Bucky had decided to pretty much call it a day and had made good his escape while _everyone's_\- cough- Steve's -cough- backs were turned.

Mainly because the stuff that had happened earlier that morning were sort of eating at his mind. Piquing his interest in ways that the others would find alarming if they ever managed to pick up on it. After all it was rare that the words 'enhanced, pregnancy and Hydra' were all used in the same sentence. So he was understandably curious.

And right now, his mind was totally focused on _recon_ and nothing but recon. The prospect of learning something new was always distractingly nice to his tormented mind.

The prospect of being just one of the reasons why Hydra was screwed was also nice to him.

Revenge. Sad as it was he was a firm believer in an eye for an eye. So revenge was doubly nice. Especially since he owed Hydra _pain _the likes of which the organization couldn't possibly fathom.

Also- there was a woman in a delicate condition involved. And that was causing his long dormant protective instincts to kick up one hell of a fuss. Which was just one reason why he was walking around so aimlessly.

He was too damned restless to bother heading to his room and trying to crash for a bit. Between the recon, wanting to screw Hydra over, and check out the woman and make sure that she was okay and had what she needed or whatever her baby needed- he was pretty fucking high strung.

Maybe a bit more than normal if he were perfectly honest with himself.

Hearing voices up ahead of him, he moved quickly until he reached the end of the hallway and then pressed his back against the wall and simply listened. His mind already identifying the speakers as Stark and Banner.

"Okay so this morning was terrible." Tony said as he scrubbed his face with his hands. The man looked like he was dead on his feet practically ten times over.

"This morning made me cry," Banner said. "I lost samples! Blood that I was studying, tissues- the chemicals alone should have had us in lock down for weeks under a bio hazard threat!"

"Good thing that we have those annoying orange suits." Tony joked.

"This isn't a joke Tony, that can't happen again." Banner snapped.

"It won't Bruce," Tony assured the other man before then saying. "She's just...restless right now and dicking with us is her way of releasing some of her pent up energy."

Banner sighed heavily before saying, "Then you should allow her to leave every so often instead of trapping her here where she can cause chaos."

"But Bruce- she hasn't left since..."

"I know."

"And what if Hydra is watching?"

"I know that you have a point here but-"

"Plus she doesn't know anyone but us."

"Again I understand you're point but she needs to be able to go out and make new friends and maybe dick with them some."

"B-But what if new friends hurt her? What if one of them is some sort of creeper? We're all she and the baby has Brucie."

Banner made a groaning sound before then saying, "Then set her up on a date or something-"

"And let someone take her for a test drive without putting a ring on her finger first- absolutely not. Besides, after what Hydra did to her I'm fairly certain that she probably won't want any kind of sexual relationship for a long, long time."

Bruce sighed again and seemed to mull over what Tony had just said before agreeing, albeit somewhat reluctantly, that the man was probably right in that regard. Cassie probably wouldn't want any form of a sexual relationship with a man again for a very, _very_ long time.

"Alright Tony, you win." He said tiredly as Tony made a small triumphant sound and muttered a weak sounding, 'yay me' as he and Bruce meandered off together.

Bucky was silent as he considered everything that he had just heard and slowly started to put the pieces of the puzzle in his head together as he stepped out of his hiding place- if one could really call it that- and started walking down a hallway that he'd not checked out before.

He walked for several minutes before taking notice of the somewhat subtle differences in this hallway as opposed to the others that he'd already seen. For example, this particular hallway looked more decorative. More lived in. Whereas the others that he'd seen so far didn't.

It had all kinds of paintings ranging from florals to landscapes in acrylics and watercolors. All were spectacularly pleasant to view. The colors were all vivid blues, purples, different shades of red, orange, pinks, and greens.

The furniture was different too.

The hallway tables were sturdier. Thicker looking. The build was oddly strong, the coloring a nice golden brown color as opposed to the dark oak ones that he'd noticed back the way that he'd come.

There were some chairs, all plushly cushioned, strategically placed here and there. For- For... It took his mind all of twenty minutes of walking down this hallway to figure out that he had literally just wandered into the female's living area.

The paintings, the tables, the chairs and other pieces of furniture were all something that she had used to decorate her personal space with. Which meant that he was getting close to finding her.

The thought of which made him feel ridiculously giddy as he tried to envision what she would be like and how their introduction would go. He would be polite of course. His mother had boxed his ears enough as a child to instill manners into him, thank god.

He'd make himself appear to be less threatening than he actually was- there was no need to frighten the poor woman after all. Fear would be bad for her health as well as the health of her baby. So if it looked like she was about to freak out on him he would leave her area immediately and contact Stark or something so that he could care for the female.

* * *

Cassie was sitting on the floor of her living room, watching a 'how to' video on YouTube on water painting. Her own art supplies were strewn out around her as she watched with avid interest how to prep the brushes needed for this particular project.

Pausing the video once she had the first bit down, she set about prepping her own brushes and then unpaused the video to watch the next part when a big dark shadow walked by her living room.

Figuring that it must be Thor or someone coming to check on her since her last fainting spell an hour ago- she called out to him without looking to see who it was and paused the video again and simply started to put her brush to the canvas when she realized that something was wrong.

Lifting her head to see who was standing in her doorway, filling the room with his nervous energy- she dropped her brush and accidentally kicked over her water dish in surprise upon seeing who was there.

Pale blue eyes met soft green for a moment before she managed to mutter, "Oh." in an awkward sounding tone. Causing the man's lips to quirk ever so slightly in an amused half smirk.

He watched her struggle to think of something more to say for all of a heartbeat before deciding to take pity on her and simply said, "Hello doll." Which seemed to do the trick at forcing her brain to restart, because the next thing he knew she was up and awkwardly fussing with her shirt hem- pulling it down as far as she could as if attempting to hide the small swell of her normally flat stomach.

To be honest he had almost missed her completely, which is unusual for him since he was usually more aware of his surroundings than he was now. He kind of had to be to stay alive this long.

And if not for her calling out to him-obviously thinking he was someone else- he would have totally missed her. But now that he had found her, he was pleasantly surprised by what he had found. He had expected a- damn near- total bitch in attitude if Tony, Bruce and Thor's actions this morning were any indication at all towards her personality.

However everyone's freak out this morning was _obviously_ an exaggeration of her character.

She looked...for lack of a better word, absolutely lovely to him. Though it had taken him a minute of simply watching her from the doorway to realize that she was the pregnant woman that Stark and the others were freaking out so badly about.

Her top was slightly baggy on her, which partially hid her condition from unwanted, and prying eyes- a wise choice for someone that Hydra was after. She could manage to hide her condition in the early stages of her pregnancy, however later was a different matter altogether.

He was betting that Tony and the others were aware of this and that was why they were all sticking so damn close to her.

"Sergeant Barnes?" Her voice cut through his thoughts like a knife, cutting them off there where he could easily pick them up again and examine them later in the comfort of his own room. "Is everything alright? Do you- Are you having an episode? Should I call Steve here?" He noticed that she was standing up now, her expression was slightly alarmed and he could tell that she was fighting the urge to run for cover or something.

And that made him feel just a bit bad since it wasn't his intent to make her feel frightened of him. If anything, he wanted her to find his presence...comforting? Protective maybe?

"I'm fine. Just...thinking." He slowly said watching the way her body gradually relaxed and she looked less scared.

"I see," Was all that she said for a moment before then asking him, "Do you want to come in and have a seat? Maybe visit for a while?"

She was more astute than he had anticipated to invite him in for a spell. Nevertheless, this went along with his plans- so he merely smiled and nodded his head and let her walk over to him and gently take his metal hand in one of her own and lead him over to one of the chairs.


	5. Chapter 5

"Thanks for inviting me to sit a spell, sweetheart." Bucky said as he watched the woman pick up the mess of art supplies lying on the floor and set them all on a nearby coffee table before she softly responded with an almost awkward sounding,

"No problem, Sergeant. Um...would you like something to eat or drink while I'm up? I've got some stuff since it's close to lunch time-" She rambled a bit in what seemed to be a nervous habit.

"It's actually a bit after lunch, doll." He pointed out gently as he caught sight of the clock on the wall.

"I-It is?" She asked, her tone colored by something akin to disbelief.

It looked like she seemed to share some personality traits with Tony, from what he could tell from the way Steve and the others had often talked about the man- he tended to get so wrapped up in his projects and work that he often lost track of time, and forgot to eat or sleep.

Often times both for many, many, _many_ days on end.

And that simply wasn't good. Especially for someone in her condition.

She took a moment to glance around the room before locating a clock hanging on the wall and taking note of the time before muttering an 'oh' quickly followed by an oath that left Bucky fighting himself to keep from both grinning in genuine amusement and gently reprimanding her for such unlady-like language.

Upon realizing what she had just said, she slapped a hand to her mouth and stared at him wide eyed as her face turned a fetching pink color from embarrassment as he gave her a little bit of a smile and slowly rose from his seat and moved over to her and gently took the hand she had over her mouth, in his metal hand and very carefully removed it and lightly tugged her towards the couch so that he could gently push her down on it so that she was sitting before finally saying, "Thank you for the thought, but I can get or make my own stuff. Right now let's just worry about you. What do you need? Food? Cravings? Drinks?"

"Oh...um, a soda is fine. I'm not really hungry right now-" She started to say as he slowly shook his head at her and decided to shut that shit down _now_.

"Lack of appetite or not, you're eating for two now. If you don't want actual food- then you should try snacking on something small," She blinked at him as if she wasn't sure what to think of his somewhat curiously knowledgeable words as he quickly tacked on, "I helped my ma when she was pregnant with all three of my sisters. She sometimes tried to skip on meals either because we didn't have enough for everyone, or because she was feeling poorly. But I made sure that she ate everything that I could get my hands on and more, even if it meant stealing. It's a damned good thing I did too or my second sister would have been stillborn instead of the healthy little tyke that she was."

She gave him an kind smile and nodded her head as she relented and let him go check and see what she had in her kitchen to eat as a snack. He found some cookies- chocolate chip- some brownies that looked pretty good too.

Some left over veggie and alfredo pizza's in the fridge that he quickly confiscated and fixed a plate of two slices of each and then popped the plate in the microwave to heat them while he grabbed her a soda, checking the back of the can to make sure that it didn't have either a lot of caffeine in it or none at all.

He was pleasantly surprised to find that the lady's soda barely had anything that could be potentially harmful to her baby in it. And his respect for her grew a bit as the microwave dinged and he quickly pulled the plate of pizza out to check the temperature of it.

After all he knew enough to know that heating pizza in a microwave after it had sat in the fridge for a day or so often led the soft crust to heat up to the point of petrification. And while he wasn't choosy about what he tended to eat- the dame couldn't afford _not_ to be choosy.

Petrified pizza just wasn't eatable to normal folks.

So he was happy that the time he had used had heated it enough to be eatable, and not turn it into a piece of hard wood or something.

Once that was done, he placed three cookies and a brownie or two on the plate and then grabbed the soda and headed back to the living room where he quietly placed everything down on the coffee table in front of her and then went and grabbed himself a soda and then returned and reseated himself across from her as she asked, "This is a snack to you?"

He merely shrugged his shoulders as he watched the way her soft pink lips quirked upwards in amusement before simply muttering, "I'm just covering all the bases, doll."

"Cassie."

"What?"

"My name is Cassie." She said as he looked at her oddly before seeming to realize that he had never really asked her name before. Which was an oversight on his part. He'd have to be better about that in the future.

"T-That's a nice name doll," He stammered out before finally managing to say, "My friends either call me Bucky or James. I'll leave it up to you which one you decide to call me by."

"Okay...James. Thank you for...making me my snack?"

He smiled at her, finding her awkwardness oddly endearing and popped the tab on his soda before taking an experimental drink as she took her first tentative bite of her food as he finally replied with a gentle sounding, "You're welcome doll."


End file.
